Neck pickup, Children Of Bodom, Your opinion

[COBHC Rayza]

One thing that drove me away from purchasing an Alexi signature series guitar was the lack of a neck pickup and a tone knob. I ended up settling for less, LTD Deluxe Series MH-1000 Floyd Rose.

After playing I kind of realised that my guitar is set up in Drop C to play Bodom and my own material so I don't really need a neck pickup. I also realised how hard it would be to switch to the neck pickup and back off the tone knob mid song.

Does anyone here actually use a neck pickup? I can see why Alexi doesn't use one

 

[SteveMCsteve]

Well from the George lynch interviews, it seems like Alexi might think using the neck pickup is like "cheating." Which is totally bogus since everyone has access to neck pickups. I guess if you're a strict metal rhythm player you don't need a neck pickup but if you play a lot of other stuff it can be pretty helpful.

 

[drawnacrol]

Yeah I always use the neck pickup,never liked the sound of a bridge pickup but thats just my personal preferance

 

[the phenom]

Neck pickup is killer for chording with clean tone and such. I'll be quite honest...you did NOT settle for less. The MH-1000 is of better quality than the Alexi LTD.

 

[SteveMCsteve]

^ yea the MH-1000 is killer.

 

[Dunununuuu-NUNUNU]

it depends on the music, and even in CoBs music I could see use of a neck pickup. I love switching between neck and bridge. I do play a different style from Alexi though. With lots of gain I most of the time don't like the sound of neck p-ups. I like them with lighter gain alla early Yngwie very much tho.

 

[JayWalker]

I use my neck pickup all the time with pretty much any kind of lead playing. Sweeping specifically just sounds a lot better on a neck pickup IMO.

 

[COBHC Rayza]

Well I can't sweep well so thats probably why I never use the neck pickup. I love the V shape though! I can also use the guitar for other music but like when I play the ADK solo, I preffer Bridge pickup then neck pickup

 

[children of COB]

Well, it all depends on personal choice and also of style of music. E.g. I don't want a neck pickup around when playing metal, I'm good to go with one tone and the bridge pickup, but I do want one when I'm playing rock or slow, with tons of vibrato kind of solos, or when playing clean, which sounds shit imho with bridge pickup if you don't tweak the shit out of your amp and everything.

My personal experience: I have my RR24 for metal and I never miss the neck pickup, but I do have a crappy Strat copy (actually my brother has it, I just borrow it) with neck and middle pickup for my rock band or for when I want to play clean stuff. My next purchase is actually going to be an Ibanez S670 to have my own guitar with all the pickups for the rock band. But I'm going to stay with my RR24 as main guitar, as I really don't need anything else when playing with my metal band and playing most of what I play at home.

But, as a conclusion, it's always a matter of tastes and personal feeling.

About the guitar you should get between Al-600 and MH-1000, get the MH-1000 by all means. Only if you truly hate the neck pickup or can't live without the V shape go and get the AL. And that comes from an Alexi and RR-shape fanboi

 

[-Mannerheim-]

neck pickup is cheating alexi will sound like yngwie if he uses a neck pickup, and i sure as hell don't wanna hear that in the next COB album.

 

[children of COB]

That, I'm sorry to break it up for you, is retarded. Steve Vai or Paul Gilbert to name two of the most worldwide recognised players do use neck pickup many times and it's not because they can't play it and they're cheating.

Alexi doesn't like the neck pickup, great. He plays good and sounds good with the bridge pickup, better. But while some players do use neck pickup to cover mistakes, neck pickup's use is not by any means to cheat.

 

[SteveMCsteve]

neck pickup is cheating alexi will sound like yngwie if he uses a neck pickup, and i sure as hell don't wanna hear that in the next COB album.

I don't think its really cheating. its kinda like saying that using drum triggers is cheating.

 

[arvoitus]

One thing that I always hated about the neck pickup, some players can really actually use it right, but there are a lot of dudes out there who would like, when they try to play fast, they just put on a crapload of echo, switch on the neck pickup and just do a bunch of

I agree with alexi, most of the time when people are sweeping or doing arpeggio's they use the neck pickup in combination with delay/etc.
It just hides their sloppiness and mistakes when using the neck pickup.

But i do like the creamy/warm sound of a neck pickup. I like it for clean sounds.

 

[drawnacrol]

neck pickup is cheating

Care to explain that one????